Is the wah in HD500 any good?

[axelicker]

I'm pondering getting an HD Pro to take care of FX before and after a Randall RM4 preamp. All I'm looking for pregain are a decent phaser, tremolo, univibe, and wah. If I have to run cables to the floor for a wah, that opens up the use of any floor-based FX, however, I'd like to keep the signal chain confined to a small rack. So I'm curious if others are liking the wah pedal effect enough to use it... ?

 

[whiteop]

The wah effect works and sounds pretty good however the pedal is loose on the HD500 in it's stock condition. If you're used to professional grade wah pedals it might feel a little cheap to you.

 

[axelicker]

I'm looking at the rack-mount HD Pro, so would just use an expression pedal from Mission or Boss.

 

[Rod]

There's a couple of wahs that sound ok.

 

[longi]

I couldn't get on with the wah models, they seem to rob all of the gain and feel of the effect when the treadle was pushed. I think I only got on with one of the chrome models. I found the wah models to be amongst the worst on the unit although they didn't sound to bad. It was mainly a feel thing although they may have been improved by now

 

[Pietro]

I like a real wah better for a couple of reasons.

1. It's just as cheap to buy a real wah as an expression pedal
2. That frees up an FX slot for something else

 

[frantick]

I couldn't get on with the wah models, they seem to rob all of the gain and feel of the effect when the treadle was pushed...

That describes what I'm feeling. I play med gain stuff and when in the toe position, they just seem to die on me, especially on high notes. I don't remember this happening on my real wah pedals. I hope they can do something about that. I still haven't dragged (or drug?) out my real pedals yet, but I think I'm about to. Just didn't want more floor space taken up.

-cp

 

[GCDEF]

I had an M-13 which I believe has the same effects. Wahs were passable, but not as good as most real wahs I've had.

 

[Aaron Mayo]

I like/use them (fasel, i think). It doesn't boost like my real one, but you could set up a boost to engage simultaneously to compensate if you wanted (i like that it's unity). You can also limit the range of the sweep, which is nice. Are you gonna like it? That's pretty tough to say.

 

[TomWaitsForNoMan]

I like several of the models once the Mix is dialed back a bit ...

Are you who are running a wah before the unit experiencing any tone suck?

 

[GuitarKidd]

I couldn't get on with the wah models, they seem to rob all of the gain and feel of the effect when the treadle was pushed. I think I only got on with one of the chrome models. I found the wah models to be amongst the worst on the unit although they didn't sound to bad. It was mainly a feel thing although they may have been improved by now

Did you try adjusting the mix level on the Wah so that it doesn't overun the other effects in the chain... also, experiment moving it around in the chain.. I believe Glen Deluane advised at keeping it around 60% in the mix...

 

[Will Chen]

The prior gen of units from all manufactures I've tried sounded substandard. But honestly, I can get very close with the wah in the HD to my Crybaby. Closer than I can get than some of the mod effects to the real deal.

 

[fr8_trane]

I like a real wah better for a couple of reasons.

1. It's just as cheap to buy a real wah as a [Good] expression pedal
2. That frees up an FX slot for something else

True.

You can make do with the crappy line 6 EXP but the throw and feel is all wrong. The EXP's that look like a wah pedal cost at least as much as a real dunlop wah. That said, the wah sounds are certainly good enough to use in lieu of the real thing.

I also love the mix feature and the ability to set the hi and lo points of the wah range exactly where you want them. Even the best real wah's add WAY too much treble and are too muddy and these adjustments on the HD allow you to tailor the sound in a granular way.

 

[DRS]

The wah effect works and sounds pretty good however the pedal is loose on the HD500 in it's stock condition. If you're used to professional grade wah pedals it might feel a little cheap to you.

You can tighten them with a pair of allen wrenches. Mine is the same tension as an EB Jr volume pedal.

 

[DarrenTD]

I don't use expression pedal wahs on any of my stuff. They feel to strange to me so I just use my Morley Lynch pedal & it sounds good. I've seen a couple youtube vids of the HD 500 wahs that sounded not bad though.........

 

[marshall2288]

They sound ok with some tweaking. Nothing replaces an original Crybaby though

 

[whackystrings]

There are a lot of sonic and non-sonic pros and cons to using HD-series wah emulations vs. real wah pedals. Me, I am willing to let go of the ideal wah sound in favour of using a model because I am among the mere mortals who only use wah as a passing effect on a short solo or as a slow filter for texturing on one or two songs. I don't think that anyone should pressure themselves into thinking that only a true, dedicated wah pedal is good enough. As I have said in other posts, my rule of thumb is to use a dedicated pedal if the effect is a mainstay of your sound but use a modeler if it is just a seldom used effect. YMMV.

 

[axelicker]

^ that's where I'm at too, so I'm willing to use an exp pedal and have reasonable results. I only use it for some leads. For example I had the Boss V-wah and found one of the models good enough. And again, in my case I'd really like to plug into the rack, avoid long routes to the floor, and not run through a wah pedal buffer all the time.